Ugo Foscolo: An Italian in Regency England

Abstract

Readers of Italian Studies will no doubt hasten to enjoy for themselves the picture of Regency England that Professor Vincent has most adroitly pieced together around Foscolo, for, quite apart from the mass of remote information and of spicy gossip it provides, there are characters so life-like in presentation in this book, that it is as fascinating to read as a good novel would be. Hitherto Foscolo's last years have been but imperfectly known. In 1910 F. Viglione, availing himself mainly of the Foscolo papers and correspondence which, thanks to Canon Riego had been saved from dispersal, and through the mediation of Sir Robert Finch, Francesco Mayer and Mazzini are now preserved at Leghorn, cleared up a number of facts, but in breaking new ground his incomplete familiarity with the English background allowed inaccuracies to slip into his account, several of which Professor Vincent had already corrected, particularly with regard to Foscolo's connexion with Hudson Gurney, John Allen and Holland House and with J. C. Hobhouse on the strength of a considerable amount of unpublished material, including Foscolo's autograph letters, he has succeeded by tireless research in unearthing.2 These earlier publications concerned particular incidents and people; here we have, on the contrary, a full record of most of the people with whom Foscolo came into touch and of the circumstances of their contacts, but over and above the significance of these details, perhaps the most helpful contribution Professor Vincent makes will be found to be this. Immediately upon his arrival in London Foscolo was almost enthusiastically welcomed. Italian scholars had taken this welcome for granted as if due to the poet, because he was a great poet. Professor Vincent puts this welcome in a quite different, and far more convincing, light. Foscolo was introduced no doubt as a renowned

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